Birthdays

When your child is obsessed with trains as much as mine, it doesn’t take much thought to decide the theme for his third birthday party. My little guy LOVES trains. He could watch Thomas The Train, videos of trains, and play with his toy trains all day, everyday. Thus, you can imagine how excited my son, Anders, was when we threw him a train-themed birthday party.

As per usual, I used our beloved Polkatots to make his cupcake cake. (I prefer cupcake cakes for kid parties as they are soooooooo much easier for kids who have little patience in waiting for a cake to be sliced. Likewise, they make it more convenient for the adults.) Polkatots created a gorgeous train cupcake cake consisting of red velvet, vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry-flavored cupcakes. I use Polkatots for every party not only because they do a great job with the decorating, but because they are the best-tasting and most addictive cupcakes EVER! The only downside? I always eat way too many!

Other highlights from the party included a train piñata, a bouncy house combo blow up in the shape of a train station, and mini train rides. Since we only invited his 6 classmates, we found some great (and inexpensive) train sets to give to each child as a party favor.

Overall, it was a fantastic party and my newly-turned three-year old was over the moon! Let the “Terrific Three’s” begin!

I knew it was bound to happen. I knew a golf-themed birthday party would be in my future, I just didn’t know it would be this soon. My husband, who is a scratch golfer, has a love for golf that I knew eventually would be passed down to at least one of our kids. (I play golf as well, and I enjoy it…however, I don’t watch the Golf Channel around the clock and spend my time at the gas pump practicing my golf swing with an imaginary golf club. Yes, my hubby does this and yes, he gets a lot of strange looks.) Our son AJ LOVES golf, especially mini golf. When asked what he wanted to do for his 4th birthday party, without an ounce of hesitation, he shouted, “a mini golf party!”

We rented a 9-hole portable mini golf course which was set up at our golf club. It was the heavy-duty wood-framed holes with lots of different colorful obstacles on each (i.e. windmills, mazes, etc.). There aren’t too many companies that have portable mini golf courses like these in the Los Angeles area so it took me a while to locate one. Most companies have the flimsy, thin boards that have poor reviews or the kind that use your own grass and simply provide a border for a hole. I found this one from Party Pals. It looked adorable, especially with a sea of preschool-age kids in their little polo shirts and khaki shorts with colorful golf balls and clubs.

The kids had a blast! There were many kids that had never before played mini golf, but soon became hooked. They were incredibly excited to be able to go home and continue practicing as the party favors consisted of their own personalized putters from Noochie Golf and Mabel’s Labels. They also received two kid golf balls and a Stephen Joseph pencil box to keep their pencils and score cards.

We used Polkatots Cupcakes again for the cupcake cake which turned out AMAZING! Not only are they the most delicious cupcakes on the planet, but they did a remarkable job with the golf theme. Overall, it was an incredible par-tee with lots of fun had by all. Our little golfer was super-excited to share his love for golf with his family and close friends on his special day. His 4th birthday was one foooore the books!

After fixing some website issues, I am finally back up and running! HOORAY! With that said, I am now able to post some of my saved posts from the last six months. I’m starting out with my favorite…Anders’ 2nd Birthday “Rock” Party!

I don’t know what it is about rocks, but my Anders is OBSESSED! Small, big, rough, smooth, ugly, pretty…it doesn’t matter what they look like, he loves them all! Thus, when I was trying to figure out a theme for his 2nd birthday, I asked my husband, “Why don’t we throw him a rock party?” I knew it sounded strange, but I couldn’t imagine him loving anything more than a party centered around his passion for rocks.

Since the party-goers consisted of his fellow two-year old music class pals and their siblings, we kept the rock activities very little-kid-friendly. We had large bins filled with cereal in the shape of small pebbles/rocks and provided small shovels to scoop the ‘rocks’ into little dump trucks and buckets. We also had a rock painting table which seemed to be the favorite among the older siblings. In lieu of gifts, we asked everyone to bring a cool rock. The actual invitation read, “In place of gifts, please bring a rock of any shape, size or color. Whether it’s from your backyard or off the side of the road, anything will do!” Needless to say, Anders LOVED his new rock additions to his collection. Some of the gifted rocks were quite impressive! He received some awesome geodes, a large rock with his name painted on top, and one that was bedazzled. Who knew an actual rock party involving rock-gift-giving could be so cool?!

A big thank you to our photographer Ashley Burns for the awesome photos! And thank you to Stephen Joseph Gifts and Hape Toys for the great party favors, as well as our beloved Polkatots for the AMAZING cupcake cake (with edible rocks)! And I can’t forget my son AJ who helped his mama decorate the night before and make the Oreo dirt cups…he loved putting the gummy worms and mini dump trucks on top of the “dirt” topping. This party theme truly “rocked.”:)

And a ball we had! I have to say, this was one of the most fun (and easiest) birthday themes I’ve had the pleasure of throwing. I wanted the party (which served as the first official party thrown at our new house–woohoo!) to revolve around Anders’ favorite things and cute little personality. Since he is OBSESSED with balls, I thought he would be delighted with a yard and pool littered with his favorite toy…beach balls, bouncy balls, and literally any and every ball we owned. And indeed he was!

Here’s some highlights from the party:

Bouncy balls party favors. I was on the lookout for large bouncy balls and found them on sale at Target a couple of weeks before the party. Though it was a nightmare trying to navigate two carts full of bouncy balls with my toddler and infant by myself in the store (with constant runaway balls), it paid off. They were a huge hit!

The Mobile Play Patch LA. This is the cutest soft play area setup that is perfectly age-appropriate for infants and toddlers. It’s the ultimate party play patch including a ball pit with over 1,000 balls! The bright colors definitely fit the theme of the party beautifully. The kids LOVED this! It can be set up indoors or out. You can check it out at themobileplaypatchla.com.

Pool filled with beach balls. This was the perfect reason to finally inflate a 12-foot beach ball I found on Amazon a while back. (I used our air bed pump to fill it, which took a good twenty minutes.) It produced many “ooooo’s” and ahhhhh’s,” amusing kids and adults alike! (The small beach balls kept wanting to hover in the corner. Hence why my hubby is shown here trying to disperse the balls.)

Cake and cupcakes. I made the cake and cupcakes the morning of the party using a fabulous applesauce-for-oil-substitute recipe. (Applesauce makes it super moist and, obviously, healthier.) A big thank you to my aunt who helped me frost all 30 cupcakes and three-tiered cake! We placed large, colorful gumballs on top to tie in the theme. Super cute!

DIY boards. The stats and ‘watch me grow’ boards are among my personal favorites. My ‘staple’ at all of my parties are typically some kind of photo board, quiz, fun facts wall, etc. There are stats boards you can order via Etsy, which are great, but I always love doing them myself. I like to personalize them more by adding corresponding photos. (This was one of those wait-til-the-kids-are-asleep projects that I completed around 1am one evening.:))

Center Pieces. We created these an hour before the party from leftover items. I must say, they turned out adorable. M&M’s, pinwheels, jars, and ta-daaaah! The perfect center piece!

Overall, it was a fabulous and fun day of celebrating our little one-year old on his first birthday. The kids loved the bright colors and balls galore. (I think the adults were big fans as well!) Even though I’m still wrapping my head around the idea of my little guy being one, I do know one thing for sure…he certainly had a ‘ball’ on his big day!

Bring on the Two’s! We celebrated AJ’s second birthday over the weekend and had an amazing time! His actual birthday was yesterday. Hopefully turning two on “twosday” has some hidden meaning? Like being indicative of the “Terrific Two’s” rather than the “Terrible Two’s?” A mom can hope, right?!

Normally, I would spend the two weeks leading up to a birthday party going Pinterest-crazy. I typically gather around 20 ideas and complete about five of them. (My two staples are always a fun photo collage and a yearly stats board — like the printable stat boards on Etsy, but I always make my own.) However, after being in full-out moving mode and having to pack my house up with every spare minute, it left little time and energy to tackle any of my craft ideas. (Also the reason why I haven’t posted in a month!) Thus, I kept the party small, simple, and fun. We only invited five toddler friends of AJ’s, (i.e. our nearest and dearest friends with kids AJ’s age who he sees often). Since a few brought their younger infant siblings, we also had a designated area for the babies. We were very happy we kept it small as it enabled us to catch up and chat with everyone while still keeping a watchful eye on the kiddos.

Here are some of the highlights and activities from the big day:

Toddler Town 3-In-1 Bouncer: I rented a combo bouncer for toddlers which included a bouncer, two slides, and a little obstacle course. Understandably, this was a huge hit. Since there were only about three toddlers playing inside at once, it made it nice and easy to monitor. I think AJ went down the slide at least 100 times!

Barney Character: My son is OBSESSED with Barney! Absolutely addicted! So the fact that the biggest celebrity in the world (to him) came to his party was basically the highlight of his life! He was almost in disbelief when he saw his favorite purple dinosaur prancing down the lawn towards the party with the Barney music playing. I’ve never seen him so excited. Barney danced and sang with the kids, followed by a grand goodbye ceremony – during which AJ was quite devastated to see him leave.

Animal Balloons & Face Painting: After Barney’s exit, the Barney character changed and came back out to make animal balloons and face paint — or in AJ’s case, arm paint. Since, apparently, two is the age where kids enjoy popping balloons more than playing with them, the face painting seemed to be the most encouraged option by the parents.:)

Pool of Balls: For the infants – including my five-month old – I bought a $7 wading pool and filled it with 200 non-toxic crush-proof balls. All four infants LOVED it! Anders kept refusing to be taken out.

Music: We brought our music system to play for the Barney hour. However, it turned out to be more useful simply by providing music for AJ to dance. AJ, who is a dancing machine thanks to DWTS and our DWTS friends, danced the afternoon away. The other toddlers would join in frequently which offered many giggles and smiles for the camera. (AJ’s current favorite song is “Bye Bye Bye” from N’Sync thanks to his super cool babysitter who loves all things 90’s. AJ even has his own signature choreography for the song.)

Overall, it was a wonderful party filled with great entertainment, good eats, and some incredibly happy toddlers. Sometimes small and simple can be a great thing! Let the “Terrific Two’s” begin! (Fingers crossed!)

Images by Ashley Burns and myself.

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My name is Angela Ribeiro and I am a wife, mother, and stepmother living in Los Angeles. I write about all-things-toddlers, parenting two energetic boys, my favorite toddler and adult products, and family travel.